DRINKING WATER

GettyImages-598091682 piepline control main valve Empowering Smarter Decisions With Pipeline Data

Through case studies and technical insights, this paper demonstrates how utilities can use inspection tools, valve assessments, structural modeling, and predictive analytics to make informed decisions.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • PFAS Filtration: Designing For Smaller OPEX And Footprint

    Keys to bring down the cost of PFAS treatment for operations with limited resources — or any operation using media filtration.

  • EPA Proposed Revisions To The Lead & Copper Rule

    On October 10th, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the long-awaited proposed revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCRR) which was promulgated nearly 30 years ago under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

  • Hydra-Stop Solutions Isolate Damaged Valve During Water Main Replacement

    The Village of Covington, Ohio had an ambitious 90-day project to replace the water main, taps, sewer main, laterals, and storm sewer through the center of town. Unfortunately, on day one, an unknown water service line was snagged and the top half of an 8” valve blew off, causing water to shoot 10”–12” out of the street.

  • Using ATP In A Legionella Water Management Plan

    Between December 2014 and September 2015 there were three clusters of Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks in the Bronx, New York City. Legionnaires’ disease, a severe form of pneumonia, is caused by inhaling aerosolized water containing certain pathogenic strains of Legionella bacteria. Legionella thrive in warm, stagnant water with low disinfection residuals such as hot water tanks, hot tubs, cooling towers, decorative fountains and showerheads.

  • New Toolkit Arrives Just In Time For HAB Season

    With harmful algal blooms (HABs) being forecast to increase, in part due to the effects of climate change, more water systems can expect to face problematic cyanotoxin conditions more frequently and for more days per year. In its efforts to mitigate the negative effects of such increases, the U.S. EPA has enhanced its information resources for water utilities by issuing a new Cyanotoxins Preparedness and Response Toolkit (CPRT).

  • Advanced Leak Detection Safeguards Water In Utqiaġvik, Alaska

    In the remote Arctic village of Utqiaġvik, Alaska — where extreme winters and frozen terrain make traditional water system maintenance nearly impossible — the Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC) faced a critical threat: a persistent underground leak draining over 10,000 gallons of water per day.

  • How To Benefit From Greater Transparency To Customers

    Being more proactive in sharing utility operational insights with customers can pay dividends in terms of promoting efficiency and elevating customer satisfaction. It can also prepare utilities to respond more effectively to sudden or drastic disruptions of standard operations, such as droughts, floods, wildfires, or health emergencies. Here is how to establish and benefit from greater transparency.

  • Helping Detroit Get The Lead Out

    Learn how the Kresge Foundation promotes efficient and equitable lead abatement efforts by supporting the use of BlueConduit's machine learning technology. 

  • Antiscalant Impacts Water Reclamation Efforts

    Water reuse efforts in the West Coast are a priority and have the Ground Water Replenishing System (GWRS) of the Orange County Water District (OCWD) utilizing new technologies for water conservation. 

  • Encore® 700 Chemical Feed Pumps Provide Reliable Service Over 20 Years In Santa Barbara, California

    The 37 million gallon per day William B. Cater Water Treatment plant serves City of Santa Barbara with the majority of its drinking water while also supplying treated water to the districts of Montecito Water, Carpinteria Valley Water, Goleta Water, and La Cumbre Water.

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

  • How To Install A Submersible Pump In Discharge Tubes
    11/28/2012

    In the fields of water and waste water technology, submersible pumps represent a viable economic and technical alternative to conventional, dry-installed pumps. In particular, they offer a number of handling advantages during maintenance and installation work.

  • Lab Gas Sub-Metering Accuracy Improves With Thermal Flow Meters To Save Money
    12/1/2017

    Facility administrators will find the advanced ST100 Series Thermal Mass Air/Gas Flow Meter from Fluid Components International (FCI) helps them improve the accuracy of specialty gas point of use and sub-metering operations to achieve accurate billing in their labs for better cost tracking and control.

  • Best Practices In Moist And Wet Gas Flow
    12/20/2021

    The Wet Gas MASSter sensor is for use in applications that have a high level of moisture or condensation present in the gas flow stream that cannot otherwise be removed.

  • Oxidation Reduction Potential
    10/29/2021

    What is ORP? Oxidation Reduction Potential or Redox is the activity or strength of oxidizers and reducers in relation to their concentration. Oxidizers accept electrons, reducers lose electrons. Examples of oxidizers are: chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, bromine, ozone, and chlorine dioxide. Examples of reducers are sodium sulfite, sodium bisulfate and hydrogen sulfide. Like acidity and alkalinity, the increase of one is at the expense of the other.

  • Municipal Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring
    9/24/2020

    We arm municipalities with actionable data necessary to make informed decisions about water quality in their communities

  • Reducing And Reusing Water In Steel Manufacturing
    2/28/2022

    The art of manufacturing steel for industries is well over 100 years old. Within this time, the steel business has fulfilled consumer needs, including construction, transportation, and manufacturing. The steel manufacturing process is quite intensive as it requires a lot of water to cool down the application. Steel plants constantly look for strategies that can help sustain the steel for a longer time by efficiently improving water and energy consumption.

  • Complete Flow Solutions
    11/11/2024

    Siemens’ extensive portfolio includes various flow measurement technologies, such as Coriolis, clamp-on ultrasonic, vortex, and differential pressure meters, catering to a wide range of industrial needs.

  • Remote Monitoring And Maintenance Through Digitalization
    3/17/2020

    Siemens offers to our customers the ability to make both process measurements, and to remotely monitor the activity and health of instrumentation, whether you have a SCADA, PLC or DCS system, or not. By utilizing Siemens’ ability to offer unparalleled flow, level, pressure, temperature, and weight measurement we can provide a broad range of process measurements and offer unequaled monitoring of the health and performance of those products.

  • Application Note: Ozone Measurement In Potable Water
    3/1/2010

    Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent that can be used to destroy the organic compounds that affect the taste and odor of potable water. Environmental concerns have led to increased use of ozone because, unlike chlorine, it does not form hazardous by-products.

  • Temperature Monitoring For Water Treatment
    4/29/2024

    Learn how to ensure compliance, monitor water temperature diligently, and implement robust measures to mitigate regulatory penalties.

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

SureSafe™ Filter Cartridges will inhibit the growth of Legionella on your filter cartridges. Silver has been used to help sanitize liquids for more than 4,000 years. Permanent Silver Zeolite fibers are used to manufacture HARMSCO® SureSafe™ Filtration Media which inhibits the growth of biofilms on and in the filtration media.

The DPS5000 I2C from Druck, part of the UNIK5000 family, offers integrated digital electronics to enhance the performance level of the UNIK 5000 Pressure Sensing Platform to levels unmatched by traditional analogue sensors. It features an I2C digital interface, over which fully compensated readings of pressure and temperature are sent, as well as control of many functions of the device.

The Aztec 600 Low Range Manganese Analyzer AW634 offers reliable and accurate on-line analysis of manganese up to 0.10 ppm Mn.

The TrojanUVSwift®SC is designed to treat flow rates of 20 gallons per minute (GPM) to 16 million gallons per day (MGD) or 4.5 to 2,525 m3/hr. These compact UV systems offer communities an economical solution for drinking water disinfection.

The Aztec 600 Ammonia Analyzer AW632 offers reliable and accurate on-line analysis of ammonia and ammonium ions up to 3 ppm NH3.

Jacobi Carbons’ AquaSorb™ CB1-MW is a high activity powdered activated carbon (PAC) specifically manufactured for the treatment of water for human consumption, in both municipal and industrial applications.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

Nick Dugan is an environmental engineer working in EPA's Cincinnati laboratory. He is currently focused on bench-scale trials evaluating the impact of common drinking water treatment oxidants on intact, toxin-producing cyanobacterial cells over a range of water quality conditions.

The Western Governors' Drought Forum webinar “Once Marginal, Now Crucial: The Growing Demand for Re-used, Produced, and Brackish Water” explores the technological and regulatory obstacles to utilizing re-used, produced, and brackish water.

How much water does it take to make a hamburger? How about to manufacture a car? Having experienced growing up with limited resources living in a refugee camp in India, Anil Ahuja is leading a movement to design sustainable cities and systems that protect the earth and the people who live on it.

Water scarcity challenges are growing. Manufacturing the products used in our daily lives consumes a large amount of water. Reusing treated wastewater provides the most sustainable source of clean water.

Bill Gates challenges Jimmy to taste test water from the Omniprocessor, which turns sewage into clean drinking water.

ABOUT DRINKING WATER

In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:

  1. Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
  2. Drinking water treatment of source water
  3. Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers

Drinking Water Sources

Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater. 

Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.

Drinking Water Treatment

Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.

There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.

The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.

The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.

During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.

Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.

Drinking Water Distribution

Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.

A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.

Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.